As Peng Xinyuan walked, he said, "By the way, you asked me earlier to casually find Lin Sizhi and ask if he has a clear group strategy, and if not, just follow your plan.
"He said, do whatever you want freely and don’t consider him."
Huang Shengjie nodded, "Alright, I got it."
Previously, while searching for players from the two communities, Huang Shengjie had also specifically reminded Peng Xinyuan to simply ask if he met Lin Sizhi.
Considering the initial arrangement upon entering the game, Lin Sizhi is the core player of the game and should be the one to set up the group strategy.
If their strategies are in conflict, Huang Shengjie would definitely have to give way.
This kind of response essentially lets Huang Shengjie act freely on his own.
Actually, this was also within Huang Shengjie’s expectations; if Lin Sizhi’s conceived group strategy truly needed them, he would have arranged someone to find them long ago, without waiting until now with no news.
Huang Shengjie was unclear about Lin Sizhi’s intentions, but it didn’t matter much.
After all, he had already determined earlier to try as much as possible to solve problems independently, without relying on others anymore.
Huang Shengjie also knew that his plans had some weaknesses, but even a flawed group strategy, if successfully implemented, is better than having no strategy at all.
Huang Shengjie asked, "Did your community not have any core players this time? What about Wu Xiufang?"
Peng Xinyuan sighed, "Our community originally had two leading players, but they both participated in the previous two games.
"So they couldn’t enter this game.
"Before entering the game, Wu Xiufang told me and Li Mao to discuss and draft a prudent group strategy to ensure basic earnings. After all, it’s an allocation game, the risk is relatively low.
"But I didn’t expect this game wouldn’t allow players from the same community to communicate in any way! I just blanked out, not knowing what to do.
"Luckily, I ran into some acquaintances.
"However...What’s the situation in your community? I remember your community still has a lot of strong players, didn’t Yao Yuan enter the game? Why do you have to take the lead to organize?"
Clearly, Yao Yuan’s performance in the ’Prison Factory’ left a deep impression on Peng Xinyuan, hence he subconsciously asked.
Huang Shengjie was momentarily speechless, "It’s...a long story."
The two found the Anti-Smuggling Team’s equipment booth separately.
The number of equipment booths was ample, and since the area was large, Huang Shengjie didn’t have time to count, but a rough estimate was over thirty, enough for most players to become part of the Anti-Smuggling Team.
This means if players are not restrained, there could be more Anti-Smuggling Team members than Gold Digger players.
Earlier, Huang Shengjie had already observed the equipment on the booths and the instructions, so now he didn’t need to think further; he just picked up the equipment and donned the armband.
A sound came from the inspection device in his hand, similar to a calculator.
[Press ’Confirm’ button to forfeit the ’Gold Digger’ identity and become part of the ’Anti-Smuggling Team.’ Please note, this identity change is irreversible.]
Huang Shengjie pressed the ’Confirm’ button and immediately noticed the nameplate on his chest had changed color, indicating the identity conversion was complete.
"You go to Zone A, I’ll go to Zone C, and we’ll each receive players from the opposite community.
"Then I’ll find you to alternate."
Huang Shengjie and Peng Xinyuan split up; he reached the area near the turnstiles of Zone C, while preparing to receive other players, observing the situation within the venue.
In the central auction zone, a new auction began.
[The third auction has ended.]
[Auction item: 30,900 gold sand.]
[1. ’34,000 minutes visa time’ (successfully bid)]
[2. ’22,300 minutes visa time’ (failed bid)]
[The fourth auction begins.]
[Auction item: 30,100 gold sand.]
Huang Shengjie took a look, realizing his team in Zone C would need additional time to gather enough gold sand, and this gave him the opportunity to watch the auction proceedings.
He moved closer to the edge of the auction area, finding a bidding station to place his bid.
During this, a few Gold Diggers saw him and quickly stayed away.
Huang Shengjie glanced at the structure of the bidding station, feeling quite surprised because it was extremely simple.
It only had a simple numeric panel for inputting specific numbers and placing bids, with nothing else.
No screen for viewing bidding records or transaction records, nor any outlet for collecting gold coins.
After winning the gold sand, one has to go to the ’Auction Pickup Office’ to fetch the converted gold coins.
"Which means...only during the brief moments after a new auction begins will the large screen continue displaying the previous auction’s results, and then it gradually fades away.
This is the only way players can directly view the results of the previous auction.
If all players could freely check auction records, even fools would realize there’s something fishy about the auction.
By hiding this way, many clueless Gold Diggers who hadn’t previously paid attention to the auction could still fall into the trap.
The Imitator designed this on purpose.
Will there be people who continue to fall for it?"
Of course, Huang Shengjie didn’t plan to bid; his main task was watching out for his teammates’ gold digging activities in Zone C and providing cover.
But his intuition told him that the auction rules shouldn’t be so simple, and he should pay more attention.
Sure enough, as soon as the third auction started, there was a player at the central position of the auction area loudly saying, "Hello everyone, my name is Deng Lei, please don’t bid for now and listen to me!
There’s a problem with the current bidding method, it’s purely a loss!
This is clearly a trap because everyone wants to get lucky, so they all compete to bid until the bid equals the value of the auctioned gold sand.
At this point, the second place has fallen into the trap; they must bid to outbid the first to escape the trap!
Then, the first and second place have to bid alternately to stop the losses, which only maximizes the losses for both sides!
Therefore, I propose a new trading method here!
Currently, all players by the bidding station, please don’t bid! I will bid with the base price to win the gold sand, and then equally distribute the gold coins I get among all the players currently at the bidding station!
Everyone consider this carefully!
If you continue bidding the original way, everyone loses: the first buys the gold sand with more visa time; the second purely loses a large amount of visa time; others gain nothing, essentially wasting their time.
But with this new method, everyone profits!"
Huang Shengjie took a look; although his view was obstructed by clutter, making it impossible to see the full auction area, estimating a bit, there were at most five or six players concentrating on the auction right now.
If Deng Lei’s proposal truly succeeds, and he bids for 30,900 gold sand at an extremely low price, then converted into gold coins split six ways, each person could share 5,000 gold coins.
For the bidding players, this is indeed a very lucrative gain.
It’s just a total loss for the auction organizer and the Imitator.
But since these are the auction game rules, one must accept the outcome willingly, especially as the previous two auctions had the auction organizer profit.